NYC Mission Trip from Ellie: “This past week, we took 10 students from ages 12 to 16 up to New York for a mission trip. We stayed in Living Waters Church in Brooklyn, New York. For our first day of mission work, we wrote verses of love on slips of paper and walked around placing them on cars or handing them to people. Of course, we wanted to do outreach, so we split into two groups and had lots of encounters. We noticed there was a huge language barrier in the areas where we were, but that didn’t stop us. We prayed for and connected with lots of people, even if we had to use google translate. For two of our days there, we made our way to Saint Paul’s Soup Kitchen. Half of us would go out for street clean up and do more outreach while the other half would work in the kitchen, prepare meals for people, or clean. For another two of our days, we started out by volunteering with “Meals on Wheels” and took meals to apartments around Manhattan. We spent most of our time walking the streets trying to have conversations and form connections with whoever we felt we were being called to. One day, we sat down and tried something called “Ask the Lord.” This is where you sat individually, asked God to calm your heart and mind, and tried to feel or see some sort of sign. Usually, people would feel called to a place to go or imagine a color or think of certain words. You would then go out and look for that thing and God would put something in your path for you. One student had the feeling we should go to a park, but we weren’t able to because of walking distance. After many discouragements, she looked up and saw “Park Avenue”. She then encountered a woman whose mom had just passed away. As our student prayed with her, the woman had tears streaming down her face. This all ended in a big hug and a “Wow. God is good.” We all learned that God will put little things in our paths, but we also have to put in work too. From deep in our hearts to through a prayer with a random person, God was definitely moving this week with this group.”